Madame Antoine episode 12 recap

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Side dish: Soo Hyun claimed that he did not eat Hye Rim’s cookies, because he did not want to waste them. Maybe, if they had been Marie-Soleil’s Coconut Cookies, then Soo Hyun would have thrown romantic gesture out and stuffed cookies into his mouth.

Episode Recap

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Soo Hyun (Sung Joon) abstains from putting a flower in his hair while professing his love for Hye Rim (Han Ye Seul). He is disturbed that she is making a request so similar to a step in Phase Two of his experimental study. Hye Rim proposes a date on Friday, which Soo Hyun readily agrees to, then gives an ultimatum that Soo Hyun must place the flower in his hair before Friday or else the date is off.

Ji Ho (Lee Joo Hyung) has a nightmare in which Yoo Rim (Hwang Seung Eon) marries another man. He asks Hye Rim for a reading, but she denies that it will be necessary in this instance. She simply directs Ji Ho to tell Yoo Rim that he likes her. However, when the opportunity presents itself, Ji Ho is incapable of saying the words, and Yoo Rim impatiently walks off.

Soo Hyun grows suspicious that Hye Rim knows that she is the subject of his experiment, and he grills Ji Ho. Unfortunately, it is difficult to read whether Ji Ho is lying when he claims that Hye Rim knows nothing. Soo Hyun decides to go over security camera footage from his office, and spots Hye Rim sneaking around.

Soo Hyun summons Hye Rim to his office and they play a game in which he pretends that he does not suspect Hye Rim, and Hye Rim feigns ignorance that she is the suspect. Eventually, he calls her out as the intruder, and Hye Rim comes up with the excuse of a failed surprise party, then escapes before Soo Hyun can question her any more.

Soo Hyun is trying on various flowers in his hair and finding none to his liking when he receives a call about a speaking engagement that he never agreed to. It is the latest incidence of identity fraud against him. Soo Hyun decides to attend the lecture that he is purportedly giving, and though the imposter manages to escape, Soo Hyun sees a photo of the man, and it is his former high school classmate, Tae Hwa.

Soo Hyun cannot reach Tae Hwa, but he leaves a sympathetic voice message. Then, he takes the uncharacteristic step of appearing on a radio show so that he can fulfill Hye Rim’s request for a flower in the hair along with a confession of love. Listening in her café, Hye Rim is elated. When Soo Hyun returns, she jumps into his arms while declaring that she loves him. Soo Hyun’s brother, Seung Chan (Jinwoon) watches from a distance, and gives a sad smile.

Seung Chan calls out Hye Rim to a board game café, and he uses theoretical scenarios to get her to confirm that she prefers Soo Hyun over him. Hye Rim ignores his conjecture, but when Seung Chan explicitly asks if she will always choose Soo Hyun over him, she can only apologize, and thank him for spending time with her.

Hye Rim learns from the Chairman (Byun Hee Bong) that Soo Hyun has given notice of the termination of his experiment. Meanwhile, Soo Hyun reveals to his mentor, Mi Ran (Jang Mi Hee) that his guilt about deceiving Hye Rim is making him seriously consider giving up on the experiment. Mi Ran is concerned about the professional consequences of stopping his research, but given how amoral the entire project is, she supports ending it.

Soo Hyun continues to stand by his hypothesis that true love does not exist. However, being in love with Hye Rim is compromising this hypothesis. Soo Hyun believes that remaining emotionally detached is the only way to discover truths about the nature of love, and hence, he decides to proceed with Phase Two of the experiment.

Soo Hyun receives a written invitation from Hye Rim to come to her apartment at 7pm. He shows up a little nervous since it is his first time visiting her personal space. While Hye Rim is cooking dinner, Soo Hyun spots a black bra, and becomes fixated on it.

Soo Hyun tries to put the black bra out of his mind while they are eating, but the strain results in an awkward silence. Hye Rim breaks the silence to ask him about his experiment since it is now, presumably, over. However, it would appear that Hye Rim will not get the satisfaction of hearing Soo Hyun admit that he experimented on her. Meanwhile, Soo Hyun is desperately trying to figure out how to execute Phase Two of his experiment.

After dinner, Soo Hyun asks Hye Rim what she wants most, and she says a magic wand to make her life easier. She returns the question, and Soo Hyun asks for a video message. Hye Rim’s eyes widen as she recognizes one of the requirements of the experiment’s Phase Two.

Hye Rim finally breaks and shouts that she will not provide him with a video message. She objects to his seemingly endless demands of her, but cannot bring herself to confront him about being the subject of his experiment. They resort to petty bickering instead. Fed up with being unable to trust him, Hye Rim proposes breaking up, and Soo Hyun appears devastated. He asks why she is so emotionally volatile about his request for the video message, and Hye Rim cannot bring herself to speak the truth, so she throws him out. Alone, Soo Hyun sees parallels between Hye Rim’s rejection and being abandoned by his mother.

After visiting Tae Hwa’s unsuspecting mother, then protecting Tae Hwa from police detectives by citing doctor patient confidentiality, Soo Hyun manages to find Tae Hwa by pretending to be a black operative. However, Tae Hwa is spooked by hallucinations of the black operative who torments him, and while trying to escape, he runs straight into the police detectives. Soo Hyun attempts to intervene on the basis of Tae Hwa’s mental illness, but when it is clear that the arrest will proceed, he hugs Tae Hwa, promising that he will help him. A contrite Tae Hwa breaks down.

Thanks to Soo Hyun, Tae Hwa will serve time in a mental facility instead of jail. Tae Hwa’s mother watches her son’s session with Soo Hyun from behind a two way mirror. Tae Hwa regrets aiming higher than his abilities in order to fulfill his mother’s expectations. Tae Hwa sobs while his mother begs Ji Ho to be taken away in her son’s place.

The Chairman learns that his daughter, Yeon Woo met with Soo Hyun when she was sent to have her fortune read by Hye Rim. The Chairman summons Hye Rim for an explanation, angry that she risked disgracing his family. He vehemently denies that his duaghter has a mental health issue, or that it has anything to do with the deaths of family members.

Just as the Chairman is threatening to never allow Hye Rim to see Yeon Woo again, he finds out that his daughter has gone missing again. He asks Hye Rim to find Yeon Woo using her powers of clairvoyance, but given the urgency of the situation, Hye Rim pleads for police intervention. The Chairman goes into a rage that would seem to support Yeon Woo’s claim that he killed his wife, son and sister.

Meanwhile, Soo Hyun and the female patient that may be his biological mother have turned their counselling session into an opportunity to get acquainted with each other, and they find out that they have many common preferences. Soo Hyun reveals that he does not have much in common with his family, and as the patient continues to ask questions, he begins to feel like he is the one receiving counselling, and welcomes her mothering.

When Hye Rim returns to the café, she finds the female patient waiting for her. The older woman tries to give medicinal drinks for Soo Hyun’s cold to Hye Rim, and inadvertently reveals that she may be Soo Hyun’s mother. Hye Rim attempts to bring up this possibility with Soo Hyun, but he brushes past her without listening.

After Yoo Rim expresses admiration at Hye Rim for dumping a man with such great credentials, Hye Rim begins to doubt her decision. She ends up placing a note of apology with a plate of cookies on Soo Hyun’s desk, before thinking twice, and removing the note. She is just in the process of asking Ji Ho to check on the status of the cookies when Soo Hyun awkwardly enters the café.

At the end of the day, Hye Rim checks on the cookies. Soo Hyun comes up behind her, and expresses regret about how he behaved then gives her a tulip. She apologizes for impulsively breaking up with him. He tells her that she need not record the video message, because all that matters to him is her. As Soo Hyun draws Hye Rim into an embrace, he mentally announces the start of Phase Two.

Comments

This episode was definitely an improvement over the previous one, because most of the emotional outbursts were warranted. Hye Rim was justified in overreacting to Soo Hyun’s request for a video message, because the uncertainty about whether to trust Soo Hyun must be driving her insane. Seung Chan was rightfully indignant about everyone pushing him and Mi Ran together since no one bothered to see what his feelings on the matter are.

This episode also featured some subdued, appealing moments between Soo Hyun and Hye Rim. His profession of love for her while wearing a flower in his hair over the radio was nicely understated, and Soo Hyun’s discomfort over spying Hye Rim’s bra on he bed was amusing. How nice that Soo Hyun and Hye Rim exchanged apologies like adults at the end.

Yet, I wish that Hye Rim did not kill the mood during dinner with Soo Hyun by bringing up the experiment again, and that she had been honest about knowing that she is the subject of Soo Hyun’s experiment. Much more cringe inducing is Soo Hyun’s insistence that he is a man of science, because there is nothing scientific about his methods, nor any creedence to the idea that he is an expert in female psychology. Really, this experiment needs to die, because when it was revealed in the end that Soo Hyun intends to proceed with Phase Two, I found myself thinking, “Not again?!” Hopefully, they move beyond Soo Hyun’s stupid experiment so that we may enjoy more believable couple moments.

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1 Comment

I’m wondering now – didn’t this couple already have sex? Things in this episode make me think they haven’t (because the ultimate test of doing something outrageous to prove her love could be sex). I assumed they did because 1) vacation getaway; 2) overnight; 3) lying in bed together (I think they were under the covers? ). In plenty of Kdramas, despite being fully clothed from neck to toe, we always know that those combinations mean sex, right?

I see no comparison whatsoever between HyeRim’s breaking up with him and his mother abandoning him other than he doesn’t understand why he’s being abandoned. Am I supposed to believe that this supposedly smart person is not putting 2+2 together that HyeRim asked for a hair flower confession (from a man to wear flowers no less)and now she is angry over another item that’s on his Phase 2 list.

Wow – Hye Rim is willing to reconcile with Soo Hyun because her sister mentions how great a catch he is (his creditials) so Hye Rim disregards what she finds unacceptable (the amoral experiment)? Doesn’t she prove Soo Hyun’s theory that women don’t have true love but fall for security/materialism?
AWFUL WRITING and inconsistent with Hye Rim’s character so far.

I do find it believable that Soo Hyun would continue the experiment because he’s an academic and his practical mind would say that continuing doesn’t change how he sincerely feels about her and there’s the professional consequences as well. (Not to mention the fact that the disclaimer before each episode says some of the psychology and treatments themselves are fictional which I take to mean fantasy because no real scientist would include himself in the study so that’s why I shrug and go along with it.)

And the blogger is so right about Athletic Brother and Mature Doc. I feel sorry for both of them losing a valued relationship because everybody else’s knowledge has corrupted what direction that relationship would take or not.